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We Celebrate She
If you're looking for a way to honour all the women of your community this Mother's Day, we have a great free resource called 'We Celebrate She'. Featuring a Remembrance card and a Thankfulness card, this provides all people the opportunity to reflect on their relationships with women in their lives.
Print the cards yourself, and give people the opportunity to pick either the Thankfulness or Remembrance card to write prayer and reflection on at your Mother's Day meeting. Or, share the images on social media and invite people to respond or reshare in their setting, with their reflections of Thankfulness and Remembrance on the women in their life.
Providing a space to truly rejoice with those who are rejoicing and mourn with those who are mourning is a Biblical concept. This is something we should be especially mindful of over Mother's Day.
Thankfulness card | We rejoice with you
Mother's Day is an opportunity to reflect on all the things our mothers and mother-figures added to our lives of great value! We can rejoice because of the sacrifices the women in our lives made to teach and grow us. The thankfulness card offers us space to write thanks to these women. 'Thankfulness for those you love and have learned from. May God bless her legacy, in the manner of Mary Magdalene, Martha, Priscilla, Junia, Abigail, Huldah and Elizabeth'. We rejoice with you.
Remembrance card | We remember with you
Mother's Day is also an opportunity for all who carry hurt, loss and disappointment around mothers and important female figures - to be surrounded by the community or given space to grieve. We allow space for their pain. This is also a space for women who have experienced pain and loss around the very subject or mention of motherhood. All of us can join in remembrance and reflection as we think of the women dear to us. A suggestion by Lieutenant Emma Howan is to have candles on offer for people to light as a symbol.'Remembrance for those you have loved, hoped for and lost. May God comfort you, in the manner of Hannah and Hagar, Esther, Anna, Sarah, Leah and Mary and Bathsheba.' We remember with you.
Hannah Services
Hannah Services are groups or nights specifically to provide space for women who have lived with 'infertility, pregnancy loss, infant loss, situational infertility and medical diagnoses that prevent pregnancy'. Mothers' Day can be especially traumatic for women who have journeyed through this particular kind of pain. Our friend, Cadet Sarah Micula from The Salvation Army USA Central has created this freely printable Hannah Service resource page and instructional booklet. The Remembrance Card is featured in this. Could you host a Hannah Service or space online?
Find Hannah Services outline, worship suggestions and downloads here, courtesy of Watts Street Baptist Church's Hannah Ministry.
Sharing in COVID-19 social distancing:
Printing: If you have access to a printer, print the cards and post them in sets to your Corps folk, with a short intro from you included. Ask them to share with someone else what they've written and pray for one another.
Social Media: Share the Thankfulness and Remembrance images on your Facebook Pages from Salvation Army Women's Ministries' Facebook Page. You can also download the pictures and reupload to your own social media.
- Thankfulness: Ask your community who they are in thankfulness for, thanking God for and have been blessed by, under the Thankfulness post.
- Remembrance: Many of us will be mourning in particular ways this Mothers' Day. Ask your community how and who they are mourning, missing or facing loss over, maybe a complicated relationship or woman of influence passed on? This is a pastoral opportunity, too.
- Lieutenant Emma Howan tells us she's planning on using We Celebrate She with an extra emphasis on grief through the Remembrance cards, encouraging people to light a candle at home in as a symbol of this process. Could this be a suggestion for your community to take up?
Ways to use We Celebrate She cards
- Print: After you have printed enough of the cards below (double-sided), cut them to size. Print enough for everyone to have one each should they want. NB: These don't specifically say 'Mother's Day', so you can use the extras at another event if you have leftovers.
- Use: Have the cards up the front of your meeting in labelled baskets. Give people the opportunity to come and pick either a Remembrance or Thankfulness card and a pen. Provide a time of reflection where people can write thoughts or prayers on the back of the cards.
- Follow up: Tailor a sermon to tie in with what you are asking people to do with these. The Thanksgiving card reflections could be delivered to the women being celebrated, or shared in Bible Studies or small groups at a later date. The Remembrance card, especially, is an opportunity for sharing and prayer for those who are willing to be vulnerable.
We Celebrate She is an awesome opportunity for us to genuinely and truly celebrate women, in remembrance and thanksgiving. We hope this blesses you! Head over to our Facebook Page to let us know how you used them!
Like these? Then check out our God and Father's cards for an inclusive Father's Day resource!
